1448

4. The past continuous and the past simple are often used together to say that something happened in the middle of something else: While I was surfing the Internet, I burnt my dinner.

Past Continuous vs. Past Simple

1.We use the past continuous for incomplete or continuing actions in the past (I was writing e-mails for most of the morning); we use the past simple for a single and complete action in the past (I sent him an e-mail two hours ago).

2.We use the past continuous for an interrupted action in the past (When Sue came home, Sally was downloading the movie); we use the past simple to say that one thing happened one after another (When Sue came home, Sally downloaded the movie).

Task 1. Put the verbs in brackets in the Past Simple tense:

1.He……(reconfigure) the field structure in the file.

2.…. you……(download) any information about this subject?

3.I…….(find) the problem when I…….(launch) this program.

4.We…….(not/dump) the information onto the hard disk of the server.

5.She …..(type) the password but….(fail) to open the file.

Task 2. Use the following verbs in the Past Simple tense:

Upgrade update disable contain crash

1.The file that was lost…..important documents.

2.To prevent anyone changing the data he……the keyboard.

3.The electricity was cut off and the computers…….. .

4.We …….our printer.

5.He………his files.

Task 3. Choose the correct tense form: Past Simple or Past Continuous:

71

1.When he…………………….(buy) the laptop, he

…………………..(leave) his driver’s license on the counter.

2.When Alice …………………..(come) home, her husband

……………………(watch) online videos .

3.I ………………(work) in Photoshop when Alex ……………

(call) me.

4.She …….(access) the employee’s file stored on the computer without his consent.

5.Where ............ you (repair) your scanner?

6.The technical staff……. (try) to correct a programming fault when the light ..........(switch off).

UNIT 3

Present Perfect

1.We form the Present Perfect with have/has + past participle. The past participle often ends in –ed, if the verb is regular (installed, performed).

The negative form:

I (we, you, they) have not (haven't) lost the file. She (he) has not (hasn't) got the message.

The question form:

Have I (we, you, they) lost the file? Has she (he) got the message?

2.When we use the Present Perfect tense there is a connection with the present. This tense is used to relate the past to the present.

I (we, you, they) have lost the file! (= I have not got it

now)

3.We often use the present perfect to give new information or to announce a recent happening. She (he) has just got the message.

4.We often use just, already, never, ever, not yet, today, for, since, this (week, month) with the present perfect.

5.Remember: we use the Past Simple for situations or actions

during a period of time that ended in the past (He studied 72

Computer Science for 3 years.= He finished his studies). We use the Present Perfect for situations or actions in a period of time from the past until now (He has studied Computer Science for two years. = He still studies it).

Past Perfect

1. We form the Past Perfect tense with had + past participle:

I had (‘d) already gone out when you called the office. (positive form)

The negative form:

He had not (hadn’t) finished the installation when I got to work.

The question form:

Had you made a mistake?

2.You use the Past Perfect tense when you are looking back from a point in past time, and you are concerned with the effects of something which happened at an earlier time in the past:

He had already had his own business when he turned 20. He felt much happier once he had found a new job.

3.We use the following expressions with the Past Perfect tense: after, already, as soon as, before, by the time, just, till/until, when, yet:

When he arrived at the office, the boss had already left. Remember: If before or after is used, the Past Perfect tense is optional:

After they discussed the current project, the train arrived, they went on to talk about future plans.

Compare the use of Past Perfect and Past Simple:

- When Alex got home, Dylan installed a new program. (First Alex got home, then Dylan installed a new program).

- When Alex got home, Dylan had installed a new program. (Dylan did it before Alex got home)

Task 1. Put the verbs in brackets in the Present Perfect tense:

73

time and money dealing with intruder activity in the past few years.

- I (be/ just) there.

6.He (not/ work) as a system administrator since last winter.

Task 2. Choose the correct tense form: Past Simple or Present Perfect:

2.Peter: ……you (play) this game before? Philip: Yes, I…… I……(play) it when I was a student.

3.I ..........(not/ see) our leading programmer today. I wonder where he is.

4.Oh no! I………(delete) all the client records!.

…………(connect) to the Internet.

Task 3. Make sentences with the Present Perfect and for or since

1.I / not / play / the World of Tanks / Sunday.

2.she / work / in this department / more than five years.

3.you / see / Jack / the meeting last week?

4.these machines / not / service / a year.

5.we / be / good friends / we studied at University.

Task 4. Choose the correct variant:

74

1.I saw/had seen her presentation before so I didn’t want/hadn’t wanted to see it again.

2.By the end of the week she deleted/had deleted some messages from the server.

3.I received /had received an e-mail from the boss and sent/had sent it to my colleague.

4.The teacher wanted/had wanted to know if I ever had/had had any problems with viruses.

5.He couldn’t use the ISP as he didn’t pay/ hadn’t paid for his online time.

UNIT 4

Future Simple

1. We form the Future Simple Tense with the help of will

In spoken English we normally use the short forms I'll and we'll. We use it when we decide to do something at the time of speaking.

Oh, I have left my computer on! I will go and switch it off.

2.We also use it when we are making predictions about the future based on the general beliefs, opinions or attitudes.

I am sure you will get that job!

3.Remember: for talking about the future we can also use be going to. We use it for actions that we decided to do before we speak (I’m going to clean my desktop) and when there is something in the present situation that shows what will happen in the future (in a game: Look at her! She is going to kill my soldier!).

Task 1.Use will or be going to and the verbs in bracket:

1.Have you decided what to do with your old mobile? – Yes, I……… (give) it to my kid.

2.I know you are good at computers. …… you (help) me to install an antivirus program?

75

3.I’ve lost a very important file! – Oh, don’t worry! I……(think of) something .

4.Make a back-up copy or…….(lose) all your information.

5.Have you checked the spelling in this document? – Not yet, I………..(do) it tonight.

6.I’m sure robots………..(do) the housework for people in the near future.

7.Do you think new technologies …….(allow) us to live longer?

8.Your son likes writing programs. …….he (be) a programmer?

9.Is it likely or unlikely that in ten years we……(work) in virtual offices?

10.Your Internet is working so slowly! – I know, I………(change) the provider.

Task 2. How likely is that these predictions will come true in the next 50 years? Make up your own sentences:

1.Scientists/build/factories/ in space.

2.People/learn/to control/the weather.

3.Newspapers / disappear.

4.Virtual reality/ change/ our lifestyles.

5.Ordinary people/travel/to Mars.

6.Humans/live/beyond 150 years.

7.Doctors/ use/ electronic instruments/in surgery.

8.Scientists/discover/cure for cancer.

9.Humans/marry/robots.

10.Writing skills/ be needed.

UNIT 5

Present and Past Simple Passive

1. The present simple passive form: am/is/are + past participle Active: The device controls the copy flow.

Passive: The copy flow is controlled by the device.

76

2.We use the passive voice to describe an action when we don’t know who does (or did) the action, when it is not important who does (or did) the action and when we are more interested in the action than in the person who does (or did) something:

The “bold” attribute is toggled on and off by pressing this function key.

3.The past simple passive form: was/were + past participle

You may use by if you want to say who did or what caused the action. This program was installed by our programmer. 4. When changing a sentence from the active to the passive:

•the object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive sentence.

•the active verb changes into a passive form.

•the subject of the active sentence becomes the agent and is either introduced with the preposition by or omitted.

•only transitive verbs (i.e. verbs which take an object) can be changed into the passive.

Active: Steve found some defects in the equipment.(transitive verb) Passive: Some defects in the equipment were found by Steve.

But: All the customers come from the local area. (The verb “come” is intransitive so the sentence cannot be changed into the passive.)

Task 1. Put the verbs in brackets into the Present Simple (active or passive):

1.Hardware is the physical parts the computer … (to make).

2.Computer programs … computer programmers (to design).

3. Most programs …using a programming language like Java and Python (to write).

4.A few programmers … programs in the computer's own language called machine code (to write).

5.A computer is only useful if it … both hardware and software (to have).

77

6. Computers … billions of calculations per second (to do).

Task 2. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form Past Simple (active or passive):

1.The earliest computer, the abacus, …….to perform basic arithmetic operations (to use).

2.First electronic computers … vacuum tubes (to use).

3.The second generation of computers … about thanks to the invention of the transistor (to come).

4.The first transistor computer … at the University of Manchester in 1953 (to create).

5.First microchips-based central processing units … of multiple microchips for different CPU components (to consist).

6.Lights and switches … by screens and keyboards (to replace).

7.The nature of the underlying electronic components … (not to change).

8.Steve Jobs … what Xerox PARC team had developed (to show).

Task 3. Change the sentences below from active into passive:

1.The compiler automatically corrects the syntax errors. Passive: ……………………………………………………

2.This company developed a new brand of screen cleaner. Passive: ……………………………………………………

3.The operating system uses a metafile to hold data that defines where each file is stored on disk.

Passive: ……………………………………………………………..

4.They modified the keyboard for European users.

Passive: …………………………………………………………..

5.You launch the word processor by double clicking on this icon. Passive: …………………………………………………………...

6.We checked the validity of the password. Passive:……………………………………………………………

7.This procedure sorts all the files into alphabetical order.

78

Passive: ………………………………………………………….

8.The sales department keeps the information about the company’s clients in a database.

Passive: ……………………………………………………………..

9.The machine monitors each signal as it is sent out.

Passive: …………………………………………………………….

10. We completely computerized our stock control.

Passive: ……………………………………………………………

UNIT 6

Modal verbs

1.Modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, ought to, should) are used to talk about ability, possibility, obligation, permission, necessity, advice etc.

2.Modals are always the first word in a verb group. All modals except for “ought” are followed by the base form of the verb: I must leave soon. But: She ought to go back to Russia.

3.To make a clause negative, you put a negative word immediately after the modal: You must not worry. “Not” is often shortened to “n’t”: We couldn’t leave earlier. The negative of can is cannot (can’t).

4.To make a question, you put the modal in front of the subject:

Could you give me an example?

5.Instead of some modal verbs we can use other verbs and expressions: be able to instead of can (They will be able to work from home), have to instead of must (I always have to do the checking)

6.We use can to talk about ability in the present (She can speak English), to ask for smth. (Can you pass me the documents, please?), to talk about permission (You cannot access these files!)

7.We use could to talk about past ability (He couldn’t launch a program when he was child), to ask for permission (Could I use

79

your laptop?), to ask for smth. politely (Could you say your name again, please?)

8.We use must to talk about obligation and necessity in the present or future (You must switch off computers before leaving) . We use mustn’t to talk about prohibition (You mustn’t touch this switch!)

9.We use should or ought to to give advice and to ask for advice (You should study harder if you want to pass the exam.)

10.We use may or might to talk about things that are possible now or in the future (I might not go to work tomorrow)

Task 1. Translate into Russian paying attention to modal verbs and similar structures.

1.Psychologists now recognize Internet Addiction Syndrome (IAS) as a new illness that might cause serious problems.

2.This illness is not fake, and it must be taken seriously

3.Nowadays you can hardly find an office without a computer.

4.Computer addicts should consult specialists.

5.The problems may increase dramatically.

6.If your PC is infected with a virus, your data can be at risk.

7.I’ll have to start again! – I’ve just erased the only clean copy.

8.The user cannot gain access to the confidential information in the file without a password.

9.Computers can be classified according to their size and complexity.

10.You can’t decrypt the message because you don’t know the key.

Task 2. Choose the correct variant:

1.You don’t have to/ mustn’t touch that. You’ll get electrocuted.

2.You have to/must visit this website. It’s really interesting.

3.You have to/should try this new version – it’s much more reliable.

80